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I never wear my gi outside formal TKD training, mostly because the only time they look any good is when everyone else is wearing them. They are generally not very cool. Wearing a gi outside the dojang would feel like going to a black tie party in fancy dress. I also think that if you need your gi to feel motivated that's a problem. You have to let go of that idea and learn to get motivated in anything you're wearing. I wear my gi trousers when I am bag training at home because they are good for kicking but I don't wear a gi top, just a singlet. Definitely ditch the belt, anyone outside the martial arts who desn't know its significant, will think you look like a clown. If you train in your gi and belt I guarantee your mind will be pre-occupied with how you look and what other people think of you, when you should be concentrating on your training.

I never wear my gi outside formal TKD training, mostly because the only time they look any good is when everyone else is wearing them. They are generally not very cool. Wearing a gi outside the dojang would feel like going to a black tie party in fancy dress. I also think that if you need your gi to feel motivated that's a problem. You have to let go of that idea and learn to get motivated in anything you're wearing. I wear my gi trousers when I am bag training at home because they are good for kicking but I don't wear a gi top, just a singlet. Definitely ditch the belt, anyone outside the martial arts who desn't know its significant, will think you look like a clown. If you train in your gi and belt I guarantee your mind will be pre-occupied with how you look and what other people think of you, when you should be concentrating on your training.

All the best with your training sandra. Have fun.

Precisely! Only chickens know they answer. But it must be written down somewhere, in some arcane foul tome because if you ask a chicken that very question it always says "book, book"

I wonder what would be better about the moon trip, the arrival or the view back.

I once moonlighted as a cine projectionist and the most memorable flop I sat through was Tess of the D'urbervilles. Three hours of sheer boredom. It cleared the theatre. I challenge anyone to sit through it without supergluing their eyelids open and handcuffing themselves to the chair. It should be marketed as the world's best cure for insomnia.

Sounds like you could do just about any martial art you want. No one can tell you which one will be the best for you. Check out your local schools, good ones will let you try out, talk to the instructor, pick one you like and whose technique you respect. I wouldn't be so quick to rule out MA's that teach weapons. I once thought the same as you then I started working with a bo staff and bokken. Both really improved my movement, arm and hand strength and flow. I would never consider using either in a confrontation, because I am too slow with them, but they have helped my handwork, enormously especially blocking. I see it as another good way to cross train and stay fresh. All martial arts training requires stamina, (I'm not sure what you mean that you have endurance but not stamina?). That will develop with training. If you want more than your MA provides, run, cycle or swim.

but Australians have much stronger beer(oh..and the SAS)

The last Samurai, despite Tom Cruise Bladerunner Crouching Tiger The Assasin(both versions french and US) Amelie Lost in Translation Big Fish Kill Bill the first Matrix Mystic River Dead Man Ronin What's Eating Gilbert Grape Cape Fear, both versions Apocalypse Now just about any movie with DeNiro, Penn or Depp any jackie chan movie for a laugh almost any Arny S movie for mindless action

Everybody goes through flat spots. The learning curve is really a sawtooth line angled up. You make good progress for a while then either plateau or go backwards a bit. The better you get, the worse the lapses feel. As soon as you relax with the fact that you can't be at your best all the time, you'll get back on track.

don't forget to ease off the training a couple of days before the grading so you're fresh on the day. Eat carbs the night before and stay hydrated. Other than that just give it all you've got. Go in with the attitude that you'll take anything that's dished out on the day and jump back up fighting. And remember you have a second wind, and a third and a fourth. It's going to hurt but who cares. It can be the best day of your life. And when you get that belt make sure you remember the feeling.

Practise your side kick into a heavy bag. To start with kick with your heel. If you are kicking with the front ball of your foot, you are not getting your knee around far enough before you kick. Get a partner, stand side on to him her,lift your knee high, push out withyour heel first and use it to push your partner away from you in a straight line. The trick to getting power is to drive your heel away from your body in a straight line, not in an arc. To get height, practice side kicking over the back of a chair. Do it slowly and get the action right. One reason you may not be getting height is becaus the muscles you use to lift your legs to the side aren't strong like the quads and hipflexors. So you have to practice lots. It's worth getting it right, because done properly a step-up side kick is a killer. And I agree with G95champ, we call it a rib tickler, and that's where its really effective ribs and solar plexus.

just a temporary form of insanity

Jogging on the spot is way different to running and I wouldn't recommend doing it for as long as you are. I assume your landing on the front ball of your foot then lowering the heel. If you were running for 30 minutes your heel would fall first and your leg would be angled to the front so the pressure would not be straight up and down. That may be why you're getting sore feet. You may be bruising the balls of your feet. You also have to be careful of a condition called plantar fasciitis which is an inflammation of the tendon running from the heel over the arch. It gives you pain in the heels. Have you thought about a stationary bike or a stairmaster instead.

All that and more. Muscle also acts as an effective armour against strikes. Think about the vulnerable striking points... Sternum, collarbone, temples, nose...no muscle. I work my arms and shoulders and abs so I can take a punch/kick as much as for power and speed.

I've heard milk can make you accident prone and give you concussion.

I'm intrigued by the styles that say they get no hand injuries. I do Tae Kwon Do and have had many finger injuries, a couple of fractures, but plenty of bruised joints. Quite often I don't even notice them till the following day and have no recollection of how they occurred. I have also trained in Shotokan, Shinbukai, Kyukushin and Zendokai Karate and Bujutsu boxed a bit and worked out with Wing Chungers. There was no less threat to my fingers in any of these styles. I use a computer keyboard for a living, and though it's never stopped me, some days my speed has been down, and there's been the odd sharp pain. I can only imagine what that would mean to a professional pianist. And don't be tempted to do any breaking. I have only injured my hand once badly by breaking but that was bad enough. I hit the tiles too hard so that they all broke but I drove through to the floor, and predictably, it didn't break. I mashed a knuckle and had a very swollen hand for a few days. It didn't stop me writing but work was very uncomfortable. Our Association has a great injury record but small finger injuries are rarely reported, most people just see them as an occupational hazard, along with toe injuries.

Hang on a minute....meditation is not "religion" nor do I think of it as spiritual. I think of religion as a belief system. Meditation is not about faith it's about emptying the mind. You don't have to believe in something religious to meditate, in fact it would be a distraction. Meditation is nothing special, it's just practice and training like the rest of the martial arts. I do a brief meditation with my junior classes so I don't send them home bouncing off the walls. Just a quiet breathing exercise. It also teaches them to concentrate, no tooth fairies or father christmases, just practice.

ad nauseam!!!

welcome...lots of TKD schools wear shoes

Hi k4. I think you're getting a bit of a negative vibe here, it's interesting. As someone who's trained for a few years it's unusual to see women students with noticeable makeup on, though certainly not unheard of. In most classes I'm involved in there's a lot of sweating involved so it may not be so practical. I think the resistance you'rr feeling maybe merely because it's not the norm, not just in martial arts, but in most sports not to wear makeup. Hey I'm a guy and i comb my hair and brush my teeth before class having been on the receiving end of the dog-breath-in- the-clinches syndrome. And Kamiya, I agree with you! From an observer's point of view...and I've been wrong before...but women seem to me to dress and mak-up to impress other women not us poor saps.

OK...this is some of the history as I've read it. Most of the modern korean, japanese and chinese martial arts owe something to bodhidahrma, though not all historians believe he existed at all. He was born some say in 470ad, so forget about the 3000 year lineage! Evidence has been found predating bodhidahrma from the koguryo dynasty circa 40 bc, pictures of soldiers doing high kicks. Some form of the art was going strong at the end of the Pakje dynasty around 660 ad. hence the name of the third dan hyung, Gae Baek, who was a general in the Pakje army. This was the time of Tae Kyon. The modern style developed after WWII was named Tae Kwon Do by general Choi Hong Hi. There was another version called Tae Soo Do. Choi Hong Hi founded the ITF in 1966. The WTF was formed in 73. There are lots of non affiliated TKD Associations. Now my theory is, this TKD history goes back only 1500 odd years, a bit over 2000 if you believe the koguryo carvings story, and you could assume that folks have been fighting for many millenia before that. I find it hard to believe that a wandering monk whose speciality was sitting facing a wall for nine years at a time, was the first person to ever kick someone else in the head. I'd bet someone had done that quite competently long before anyone learnt how to record the fact.

chi is the chicken and breath is the egg

I hear a sledge hammer to the head pressure point is effective

Ronin, you ask if you meditated for eight hours whether you would have thoughts like you have when you are dreaming. I have not meditated for eight hours straight, but I have participated in 10 day sesshins where the cumulative meditation time is far more than eight hours. I find the longer I meditate the more I can continue the meditative mindstate into everyday life. But I say again it is NOT dreamlike. In a dream you are part of the dream, basically at its mercy. The meditative state, or eight meditative states or jhanas are very clear, very real, I am trying to explain what it's like but words fail me. You have to do it.